Beyond Two Souls
by EzraEssence
Summary: Pre–Inquisition. Mahanon was banned from his clan for being an abomination and he has the tattoo on his face to prove it. Thirty years later, he travels alone all over Thedas, unexpectedly meeting the people he would soon meet again in the coming months.
1. Prologue: Mahanon

Beyond Two Souls

Pre–Inquisition. Mahanon was banned from his clan for being an abomination and he has the mark on his face to prove it. Thirty years later, he travels alone all over Thedas, unexpectedly meeting the people he would soon meet again in the months.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age

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Prologue

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 **Elgar** watched, torn of what to do in this situation. He had done what the little one had asked him to do. Kill the slavers that had killed many of his kin, including his own parents.

So why?

Why was Keeper of the Lavellan clan yelling at the 9–year–old Mahanon?

Mahanon backed up, frightened and confused. "Keeper?"

The older male glowered at him as his first tried to stop him. She pleaded to him, "Keeper, please! He is only a child!"

"Deshanna, are you blind?! This child has allowed a _demon_ to live within him. He cannot live!"

Elgar was about to intervene. No. They will not harm the child.

Deshanna then stood between him and Mahanon, who had now hid behind her. "You cannot kill him, Keeper! Please, I beg of you… He's just... a child still. He is your brother's son––"

"I know that!" The Keeper snarled then he looked down at Mahanon and he too was torn.

However, the Keeper moved forward and he grabbed his daughter, Deshanna, and pulled her away. He went over to Mahanon who was now trapped against a wall. "I will not kill you, Da'len… but you will live in exile. You will live with this. Mark."

The Keeper then took out a dagger and cut himself, getting blood on his hand. Mahanon was confused before suddenly the Keeper placed his bloody hand on his forehead and started chanting.

Mahanon began crying out in pain, trying to get away from the deranged Keeper.

Elgar the Spirit could not stand in the sidelines any longer as he made his presence known. The ground began to shake and the trees began to bend. The rest of the elves noticed this as they backed away, but still it was not enough to deter the Keeper.

The strange Spirit kept at it, and the winds began to swirl around them. Then the rock wall behind Mahanon started to crack, and Elgar could not take it no longer.

 _ **LET. HIM. GO!**_

The rock wall burst out from above Mahanon's head and a huge rock flew, hitting the Keeper to the head. The Keeper fell to the ground, unmoving. Blood trailed down from his skull.

Mahanon fell to the ground, gripping the right side of his face. He looked up and there was a red marked tattoo that stretch from his forehead, crossing over his right eye vertically and ending underneath the cheek bone.

The Dalish boy got up quickly, looking at the unconscious keeper and then back up at the horrified faces of his people, including Deshanna's.

 _ **Run.**_

"…D–Did you… Did you all see that?!"

 _ **Run!**_

"Keeper Zatrand!"

"That boy is a monster!"

 _ **Do you hear me boy?! RUN!**_

Without a choice, Mahanon started running, ignoring Deshanna's calls. He kept running and running, and he never looked back.

The mark on his face would be known to all Dalish Clans…

That this child?

He is cursed.

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 _Author's Notes_

As you might have guessed it, this fanfic was inspired by the video game Beyond Two Souls, but it will be a little different so that it could fit in the Dragon Age universe.

Elgar is, of course, the spirit, and yes I know that Elgar means spirit. No, he's not the dead twin brother of Mahanon.

More will be revealed…sometime in the future.


	2. Chapter 1: Iron Bull And His Chargers

Beyond Two Souls

Pre–Inquisition. Mahanon was banned from his clan for being an abomination and he has the mark on his face to prove it. Thirty years later, he travels alone all over Thedas, unexpectedly meeting the people he would soon meet again in the coming months.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age

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Chapter 1

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Mahanon washed his face by the stream, taking a break. He had been hiking all morning and noon, looking for his hart. His fellow hart and steed was not one to disappear for this long. He had been gone since he woke up and his hart carried most of his belongings.

"Where are you, Alas..?" He wondered aloud as he only sighed.

The elf looked around for a moment before he asked, "Is the fade thin enough here? Maybe we can track him down, _Elgar_. Think you can do it?"

Mahanon waited a while longer then he saw a branch of a tree fell down to the ground as if someone had ripped it off.

"You found him?" He asked as he went over to the branch then in the far right, he saw another branch fall.

The elf began to follow the trail of sudden broken branches and stones cracking out of nowhere. He ran faster now, keeping up with the odd trail mix to look for his hart but he slowed down when he heard shouting.

He went over to the bushes of the high cliff he was on, and surely he could hear the battle going on. When he was on top, he saw fifty bandits fighting against an odd group with a qunari leading the charge. They have surrounded the company, and they were in a tight spot.

"…I'm going to help them. We'll look for Alas later," he said as he quietly made his move.

The bandits gathered around the company closer and closer. They were closing in and then out of nowhere an arrow came flying hitting through one bandit's head. He dropped dead, stunning the bandits around him.

The Iron Bull was also stunned to see that. Who could have done that? Neither his group then he saw a lone elf coming out from the woods and started firing arrows like a pro, not missing each one as some were injured and some were hurt fatally from the expert archer.

The lone elf had dark black hair, fair skin, and vibrant blue eyes. He had a strange red tattoo over on the right side of his face, and he had not seen a Dalish tattoo like that before. Not only that, but the bow the elf carried was odd itself. It wasn't made of wood, but metal like a crossbow and yet shaped like a long bow.

"Holy shit!" Iron Bull exclaimed seeing the arrow go through another bandit's head and that same arrow hit another bandit right at the eye.

"What's going on? Why have the arrows stopped?" Krem asked as he looked over from his cover. "Whoa, who's the elf?"

"Never mind that. This is our chance! CHARGERS!" Iron Bull shouted as they got out of their cover and started fighting back the remaining thirty bandits.

However, the Qunari never left his eye from the sight of this odd elf as the bandits with swords closed in on him. One attacked him then suddenly the elf's bow bent in a strange way like a mechanism then after the change, it became a long sword. The elf easily parried the attack and slashed right at the enemy.

Who was this elf? He wondered. Then he noticed a couple of archers aiming at the Elf. He and his company were too far away to stop the archers, but the elf seemed to have noticed them.

Mahanon spun and slash at another enemy then he knelt down, his left hand touching the ground. When he did, he laced magic around the rocks on the ground. He got up and threw his arm right at the archers. Two rocks the size of his hand flew right at them, each stone hitting them right at the face, stunning them.

Iron bull narrowed his eyes at that. The Elf was an archer, a swordsman, and now a mage?

More rocks levitated and threw themselves at the enemies, following Mahanon's gestures, but it was not all his doing. Mahanon was **not** a mage––he was born with _no magic_ at all.

The one who has magic was Elgar himself.

The battle quickly turned tables as the Chargers and the elf took down all of their enemies until only one cowardly archer remained.

The archer was about to run away but Mahanon held his hand out, waving and the tree roots near the bandit archer lashed out, wrapping itself around the ankles of the archer, making him fall.

Mahanon marched over to the archer bandit when he heard a low whistle. He glanced behind him to see the large Qunari and his small company approaching.

"Impressive," The Qunari said.

Mahanon studied his face for a moment and the rest of the company before he smiled. They looked like the good sorts. "Thanks. Excuse me though."

The elf turned his attention back to the archer and he gripped his scarf, pulling him close. The archer looked like he was going to piss himself when suddenly the elf asked, "You…. Have you seen a white hart by any chance? You know large broad antlers? No?"

The archer was confused but he rapidly shook his head no.

"That's your white hart?" Krem asked.

Iron Bull remembered that this morning a white hart did come into their camp and started eating their provisions. They know the large hart was owned, seeing the belongings on him and the saddle.

Mahanon looked to them before dropping the archer.

"Yes! You found him?" The Elf asked excitedly. "He has my belongings and I don't know why he ran off–––YOU!"

His sudden shouting frightened them but they now see why the sudden surprise when they turned around, seeing the white hart just coming out of the forest and walking over to the elf, nudging him affectionately.

Mahanon petted him. "Don't give me that, you crazy lummox! Running off out of nowhere while I was sleeping! Bad Alas!"

The hart just nickered nonchalantly listening if it could even understand.

Bull watched out of amusement then he saw the archer, trying to get away.

They got the archer and introductions were made between all of them as the bandit was put away. Mahanon got along well with the company and even offered a small share of the money. Apparently, the Iron Bull and his Chargers are a famous mercenary group and were hired to kill off some bandits by a town not too far from here.

Mahanon refused the share but the Chargers offered him a drink tonight.

When they returned to the town, the people were all shocked to hear the bandits were killed, but relieved. However, there were some bad news…

It was nighttime now, and they were gathered around in the Bull's Chargers camp far off from the town that just paid them in _rice_.

"I can't believe they had nothing but rice! RICE!" Rocky complained as he downed his ale.

"Hey, at least Mahanon here bought some of the rice from us," Krem said as he poured more ale in the elf's tankard.

"I haven't had the chance to buy any rice for the last couple of months," Mahanon explained, grinning. "I've been travelling alone."

"You're from a Dalish clan, right? Why are you travelling alone?" Iron Bull asked. The way the elf acted around them, it almost like the elf never had people contact with anyone and was glad for it. If the elf didn't like travelling alone then why leave in the first place?

"I left my clan at a young age. I was sort of…disowned, I guess," he explained with a sad smile.

Dalish had been eyeing at the elf for the entire day because of that red mark on his face. She knew she had seen it before somewhere.

"Disowned? For being a mage then?" Skinner asked as she learned a bit of the Dalish culture from Dalish.

"Hmm… Yes, let's go with that," Mahanon said and the Iron Bull picked up on that. There was more to that ambiguous reason but he let it go for now.

"So, Mahanon, where did you learn to fight like that?" Iron Bull asked. "I've never seen a mage holding a sword, and not just any ordinary sword."

Mahanon blinked and he took out his Bow sword. "Oh this? It's something I've designed from a Dwarven schematic."

This spiked Rocky's interest. "Dwarven schematic? From where? Which Thaig?"

"Up in the Free Marches where I came from. There are deep roads there too, and I, myself, have too much curiosity for my own good. I can't tell you much more than that, but I created the weapon from it," he explained to them.

Iron Bull noted that the elf also knew how to smith a bit, seeing that sword being used as a bow. It was strange and yet it seemed high tech. Does the Ben-Hassrath know this? Of weapons like these? If they did, they would have already made some but...

Then the conversation turned cold when one of his company asked...

"That mark…on your face. What does it represent?" Dalish asked. Iron Bull noticed that she wasn't very fond of the elf at all. She had been giving him mean looks all night as if she didn't trust him. Not that they trust this Mahanon at all, but he seemed like a good elf to just drink with for the night, especially since he got them out of a bad situation and even bought a couple of the rice bags from them when they insisted to give it to him for free. Nothing's for free, the elf had said. A good lad, but does Dalish know something?

Mahanon suspected as much that this elf nicknamed Dalish would soon figure it out. He should leave soon.

When he fell into silence, Bull and the chargers were eyeing him closely now, waiting for his answer.

After taking another sip, the Elf answered. "It means… I have a spirit living within me… Well. Time for me to find camp on my own. Hopefully Alas won't leave my side this time."

Mahanon got up and returned the tankard before going over to his hart, preparing to leave. "Thanks for the drink!"

Krem was about to stop him, but Dalish pulled him back, whispering harshly, "No! Don't… I knew I've seen it before, but that red mark on his face? It means he is _cursed._ "

"Cursed?"

"He is an _abomination._ A demon lives in him." Dalish said and this brought chills down into everyone's spines.

They were drinking with a demon?

Iron Bull looked closely at this. He had seen abominations before––Maleficars, but this one was different. It was oddly kind for a demon. He didn't ask any payment and even refused coin. Then again, what would a demon want with coin? And Rice… why did it want rice? So many questions, and the main one has not been answered. Is there really a demon?

Before any could ask, Mahanon had gotten on the white hart and was on his way now, disappearing in the shadows.

If he was a maleficar, then he was a very odd maleficar.

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 _Author's Notes_

This is going by slow, I know, but I wanted to take time and make sure he meets every of his inner circle––probably not Varric, Cassandra, and Leliana. It'd be too much.

Moreover, I am unsure about the pairing, though I am leaning towards Cassandra a bit. Or maybe Dorian.

Please review and tell me who should I post next!


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